car scrape, not my fault - insurance claim

Jeff18

Hi all.

Yesterday someone scraped my car while they were reversing out of a space, I've got deep scratches and light denting on one door. Details were exchanged, and at the time I informally said I'd be happy to bypass insurance if the repair costs were cheap, i.e. £150 - £200 sort of price. First time this has happened to me, so I was unsure about what the correct procedure usually was.

Later that day, I was told I had to inform my insurance company about the incident, so I did so, and they've now taken over the claim... (the man on the phone thought it would cost at least £500.)

The party who is at fault is now somewhat grumpy about the fact that I've gone against my word, and still wants to settle the claim with cash - now that I've set the insurance wheels in motion, is it too late for this to happen? The car is currently at a workshop awaiting the insurance company's engineer's opinion...

reason2

you have the choice to tell the insurance its for notification only.. and at no point do the insurance company HAVE to deal with it through their network - even if you are claiming on insurance you can still use quotes and repairs from your own garages.

so i would say no its not too late.

Hintza

Only very very bad people don't inform their insurer.

Or so many on here would have you believe, anything you tell them will be used against you as a way of extracting more money.

If I was the other party I would be a tad miffed too. Now you have told your insurer you might as well carry on as you will now have to declare the scrape until you die or for five years (whichever comes first).

Edit:- reason2 has a fair point but you will still have to declare it now.

Crabman

Jeff18 wrote: »

Later that day, I was told I had to inform my insurance company about the incident, so I did so, and they've now taken over the claim... (the man on the phone thought it would cost at least £500.)

Impressive that your insurance company was able to quantify repair costs from a verbal description.

The other party is right to be annoyed. You say you agreed to settle between yourselves without the need for an insurance claim (which is perfectly legitimate) but you then made an insurance claim.

It may not be too late to tell your insurer that the report was for information purposes only and that you don't want to make a claim at this point.

InsideInsurance

They can still settle cash, they just pay your insurers rather than you but the cost of a network repairer for an insurer will cost massively more than your average backstreet garage/ scratch repair place.

You may be able to withdraw the claim assuming nothings been done to the vehicle and deal directly again but you need to be careful that no costs have been incurred otherwise these would need to be paid back or its a fault claim

Strider590

Not convinced that "information purposes only" really makes any difference at all.

I did one of these and it showed up on my history as a non claim accident, so probably looked worse than a claim that went in my favour.

InsideInsurance

Strider590 wrote: »

Not convinced that "information purposes only" really makes any difference at all.

I did one of these and it showed up on my history as a non claim accident, so probably looked worse than a claim that went in my favour.

It looks identically.

Fault from an insurers perspective is if they have a net outlay at the end of the claim with the only exceptions being things like DL's "Vandalism Promise".

Jeff18

InsideInsurance wrote: »

They can still settle cash, they just pay your insurers rather than you but the cost of a network repairer for an insurer will cost massively more than your average backstreet garage/ scratch repair place.

You may be able to withdraw the claim assuming nothings been done to the vehicle and deal directly again but you need to be careful that no costs have been incurred otherwise these would need to be paid back or its a fault claim

Thanks. Where you say no costs, does that mean stuff like the courtesy car Aviva have offered us?

InsideInsurance

Jeff18 wrote: »

Thanks. Where you say no costs, does that mean stuff like the courtesy car Aviva have offered us?

It would depend on how the courtesy car has been funded.

Normally if you inform your insurers that you've have a non-fault accident they sell your details to a credit hire company who provide you a hire car on credit and recover the cost from the third party or their insurer directly.

Alternatively you may have an "enhanced" or "guaranteed" courtesy car that is actually a hire car but paid for by your insurance.

A traditional courtesy car is a car given for free by the garage and effectively is built into the labour rate and so is of no cost to your insurers directly (and is why you dont get one for a total loss or stolen not recovered)

fivetide

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It would depend on how the courtesy car has been funded.

Normally if you inform your insurers that you've have a non-fault accident they sell your details to a credit hire company who provide you a hire car on credit and recover the cost from the third party or their insurer directly.

This could explain why they have been very keen to get you to agree to making a formal claim.

Given it is pretty clear cut, they know they will make out of this (assuming third party isn't also with Aviva)

Given it is with them already for assessment I assume this didn't happen yesterday and it has been at least a week since you made the call. As others have said, given the wheels are rolling now it may as well proceed. You'll still need to declare the incident anyway.

InsideInsurance

fivetide wrote: »

This could explain why they have been very keen to get you to agree to making a formal claim.

There are a host of ways that insurers can make money from a non-fault claim. The regulator and courts have tried to close them down but generally commercial companies can afford to pay higher salaries than regulators and so will always have people who's job it is to work out new ways to generate revenue.